The present invention relates to curved and/or flexible display screens for displaying output from a computer or other video driver, and more particularly to structures designed to support such screens for viewing by a user as well as structures that can be configured using these screens such as workstations, kiosks and other furniture artifacts.
Most computers include one or more input devices enabling user interaction with computer applications as well at least one display screen for presenting computer application output. Keyboards were some of the first computer input devices available and enabled text input, movement of a cursor on a screen via arrow key and some other rudimentary input activities. Mechanical mouse type devices were developed to increase a user's ability to quickly move about on a display screen and to rapidly interact with graphical application tools on a screen by dragging a mouse controlled cursor about on the screen.
After keyboards and mouse devices, the next substantial change in input devices occurred with the development of touch sensitive display technology which enables users to touch a display screen in order to interact with content on the screen. For instance, with application control icons on a display, a user can touch an icon with a finger tip to select the icon. In some cases a user can move a finger on a screen to draw a line or other artifact. In other cases a user can perform a swiping action of a screen to cause some activity to occur. In still other cases a user may use a virtual keyboard presented on a screen to enter text or other information into an application program. In addition to eliminating the need for other mechanical devices to interact with a computer program, virtual touch type interface screens have enabled development of many new types of interface features and has enabled a single device (e.g., the touch screen) to morph into many different types of interfaces.
Regarding display screens, in general there has been a constant drive toward providing computer display screen configurations that tend to increase the sense of user immersion in content being presented on the screens. In addition to helping a user focus on presented content by blocking out distractions, additional screen space or emissive surface enables users to simultaneously open and view output from many different application programs which increases productivity in most cases.
One way to increase the sense of immersion has been to simply increase the size of a single flat panel LCD, plasma, or other type of computer display screen. For instance, while early computers had screens with diagonal dimensions of eight or less inches, many computers today come equipped with screen that are twenty-seven inches or more diagonally. One problem with increasing the size of a single screen too much is that peripheral portions of a large screen near a user at a workstation or the like become burdensome to view. For instance, if a sixty inch screen were placed two feet from a user's eyes at a workstation, the user would literally have to turn her head to the side and perhaps upward to see peripheral portions of the screen. Another problem with extremely large displays is that a user's perspective is often skewed with respect to content presented on peripheral portions of such displays rendering the content more difficult to understand.
In some cases, instead of providing a single large flat panel display, several smaller flat panel displays have been arranged edge to edge with viewing surfaces angled toward each other to be concave generally about a user's point of view. For instance, several configurations may include two or three flat panel displays arranged in a horizontal fashion with respect to each other to surround a user's workstation. Here, more pixels are provided that are all within a relatively tight range of distances from the user's eyes so that the user's perspective with respect to all portions of the emissive surfaces are acceptable. An added benefit here is that the displays themselves form an alcove about a user's workstation helping to create a private workspace for the user. In some cases, in addition to arranging displays edge to edge in a horizontal line, one or more displays may be arranged in non-vertical planes to increase the immersive feeling. For instance, a second screen may be placed adjacent a top horizontal edge of a first vertical screen and angled toward a workstation space when moving from a lower edge toward a top edge. One problem with smaller adjacent screens has been that screen bezels between emissive surfaces of adjacent screens are distracting to screen users. Bezels that break up emissive surface are also aesthetically unappealing.
In still other cases some companies including Samsung, LG and others have developed organic light emitting diode (OLED) display screens that can be formed into rigid curved emissive surfaces. For instance, these companies have developed screens that gradually curve about a single vertical axis so as to surround a space to be occupied by a user. This solution can be arranged at a workstation to provide a single emissive surface where all portions of the surface are within an acceptable distance range of the location of a user's eyes for viewing. Nevertheless, this solution does not enable a configuration where a screen can include both a curved vertical portion as well as non-vertical portions that may be useful as an overhead display portion, the top of a horizontal desktop, etc.
In addition to enabling construction of rigid curved emissive surfaces, OLEDs have also enabled construction of bendable and flexible emissive surfaces. To this end, OLEDs may be disposed on a flexible substrate comprising fabrics plastic, a foil or some other suitable type of flexible material. These flexible displays are capable of providing the same type of performance as glass-substrate displays, but can be used to arrange additional viewing and display configurations, since they can be formed into shaped surfaces (for example convex, concave, tubular, conical and spherical).
In other cases people have developed projector screens that form a portion of a sphere to surround a user and have provided one or more projectors to project images onto outer surfaces of the spherical screens to facilitate immersive content display. Unfortunately, projectors require projection space and therefore usually require much more space than flat panel devices. In addition, projected images are often not very bright and projectors often have to be used in spaces with low ambient light in order to generate acceptable images.
One other issue related to computer display screens is that many users have specific preferences for how portions of the emissive surface used by the user should be arranged and those preferences may change as the user uses a work station for different purposes. For instance, when a user uses a workstation for focused independent work, the user may want emissive surface structure to tightly surround the user to increase the immersive effect as well as to increase the user's sense of privacy. In contrast, when a user wants to share content on screens with a colleague, the user may want to reduce concavity of a display arrangement so the user and colleague can more easily simultaneously view the content on the screens. Some solutions have been developed for changing the angles between adjacent flat panel display screens to accommodate user preferences.
While there have been efforts to combine touch sensitive technology with workstation displays, most of those efforts have not been well received. For instance, many computers now come equipped with large touch sensitive displays as well as other input devices such mechanical keyboards, mouse type devices, etc. In most cases, while touch capability is technologically impressive, users routinely use the mechanical interface devices instead of the touch sensitive screens for several reasons. First, using a vertical touch sensitive screen is often ergonomically awkward. For instance, when a keyboard is generated on a vertical workstation screen a, use requires a user to position hands awkwardly relative to the keyboard in order to type in text. Second, prolonged use of a vertical touch sensitive interface would result in physical pain in many cases. To understand this point one only needs to hold an arm horizontally for a few minutes and feel the resulting fatigue. Touch screen use requiring a stretched out arm over the course of a day simply is intolerable for most workstation users. Thus, despite the advantages (e.g., reduction in hardware costs, ability to provide many different types of interfaces using a single touch sensitive screen, a more aesthetically pleasing and less cluttered overall workstation appearance, etc.) associated with virtual touch sensitive interfaces, most work stations still include mechanical interface options and most workstation users only use the touch sensitive capabilities sparingly.
Thus, there is a need for an optimized workstation configuration that can provide a continuous emissive surface (e.g., without intermediate bezels) with emissive portions at locations within a range of distance from a user's eyes that is suitable for generally non-skewed viewing and where the emissive surface is concave around more than one non-parallel axis for providing optimized substantially vertical surfaces as well as non-vertical surfaces for privacy, to support other type of work and for presenting virtual interfaces for touch input and control. In some cases there is also a need for a bendable emissive surface having a changeable shape and a structure for supporting the surface in a selected shape that is preferred by a user.